Greenville to Vicksburg — Lake Providence To Vicksburg

Vicksburg

Gage At this point in the Rivergator we’ll leave the Greenville gage and switch over to the Vicksburg Gage, which is about 40 miles downstream. We’ll denote the Vicksburg Gage as “VG.” For daily river levels and weekly forecasts, go to Water levels according to the Vicksburg Gage Low Water = 0 to 20 VG Medium Water = 20 to 33 VG High Water = 33 to 43 VG Flood Stage = 43 VG and above VG = Vicksburg Gage Flood Stage Warning: above 43 VG paddlers are advised to stay off the river. Limited access.

Most landings and approach roads will be underwater. Most islands will be gone. No easy camping. All sandbars will be covered. Fast waters with many hazards. All islands and landings will be surrounded by flooded forests full of snags, strainers, sawyers and all other dangerous conditions associated with floodwater moving through trees. Docks, wharves, dikes and any other man-made objects will create strong whirlpools, violent boils, and fast eddies. Towboats will create large waves. The Rivergator will not describe the river and its islands at any levels above flood stage.

Water Levels and Dikes

In the Vicksburg area you can use the following scale to gage water flowing over dikes, although some dikes vary in height. Also some have been “notched” in recent years as result there will be a middle notch that you can paddle through at much lower levels of water, some places down to 0 Vicksburg gage. Using the Vicksburg gage: 5-14 VG water flowing through notches only 15 VG - rocks still exposed on all dikes 16-17 VG dikes starting to go under, some flow through breaks & low spots 18 VG dikes completely under, but little flow 20-25 VG good flow and lots of boils & turbulence 25 VG strong flow, some turbulence, no dikes exposed anywhere 35 VG river bank full >43 VG Flood Stage.

Warning: above 43 VG paddlers are advised to stay off the river. Limited access. Most landings and approach roads will be underwater. Most islands will be gone. No easy camping. All sandbars will be covered. Fast waters with many hazards. All islands and landings will be surrounded by flooded forests full of snags, strainers, sawyers and all other dangerous conditions associated with floodwater moving through trees. Docks,

wharves, dikes and any other man-made objects will create strong whirlpools, violent boils, and fast eddies. Towboats will create large waves. The Rivergator will not describe the river and its islands at any levels above flood stage. Lake Providence Lake Providence is the first town landing south of the Greenville Bridge (Sunnyside Landing), hence you could make Lake Providence the end-place or start-place for your river adventure. If you are resupplying in Lake Providence safeguard your canoe or kayak, and walk into town for access to a number of convenience stores, groceries and restaurants.

The US Post Office is just over the levee at Sparrow Street (US 65) and 1st Street. You can find Wi-Fi just down the street at the library (109 Sparrow). Paddlers needing accommodations might try the Lakeview Inn & Suites, which is a mile north of town on US 65. For sit down or take out food, some of the best eating anywhere along the Lower Mississippi is found in Lake Providence at the Dock. Its well-worth the mile walk from the river for the ambience and Cajun cuisine found at the Dock, which is located literally on a dock at the edge of the oxbow lake at 829 Lake St, (318) 559-3625.

Just beyond the Dock the mystical Bayou Macon takes shape as it flows under the nondescript highway 65 bridge. Lake Providence is the birthplace of Bayou Macon. A hundred miles downstream Bayou Macon is the spectacular archeological wonder -- Poverty Point -- the site of the largest & earliest organized native society in the Western Hemisphere. 2-3,000 people lived and flourished here several millenniums before Christ, to mysteriously disappear about 1100BC. See Rivergator Appendix for complete descriptions of the fascinating paddling trails of Northeastern Louisiana including Bayou Macon, Tensas River and Bayou Bartholomew.

Lake Providence Landings Lake Providence Primitive Landing You'll see a primitive landing with access into town two miles down RBD. Hide your canoe or kayak and walk through woods, over levee and into town via City Dump Road (which brings you out on Lake Street US 65). If you need a quick resupply of water or food, this would be your closest landing to town. Lake Providence Harbor Boat Launch Narrow concrete ramp cut through the muddy banks of the harbor. Good at all water levels. Don't leave vehicle here except for daytrip.

The walk to town is three miles. Paddler's Choices in the Mayersville-Lake Providence Area 32.919151,-91.070223&spn=0.072626,0.111837

At low water canoeists and kayakers must stay main channel through some very long straightaways and very, very long gently curving turns around Mayersville, Mississippi and Lake Providence, Louisiana. But at high water levels, above 30 on the Vicksburg Gauge, several long back channels open up delivering fascinating scenery and sometimes spectacular wildlife.

Main Channel

The main channel route through this area is fairly straightforward. Go with the flow around the outsides of the bends, and make your crossings through the middles.

As always be forever alert to towboats and their navigation routes, moreover watch for buoys. Tennis Court Landing LBD 496 There are two ramps are located here. The older one is frequently bogged down in mud (below medium water 25GG). The new one was recently crushed by an upstream tow (sometime in 2011). Access to Mayersville is over a gravel/muddy road that gets flooded around 45 Greenville Gauge. Back Channel Wilson Point Towhead At high water Wilson Point Bar splits the ocean of water in two, the majority of the flow going wide around the bend, and a smaller portion staying right bank descending and flowing more slowly through a beautiful back channel.

Nearing flood stage 48 on the Greenville Gauge (43 Vicksburg) the top of Wilson Point Bar splinters into a tapestry of smaller channels which flow over the top of the island in a dozen or more sluices through the sandbars and in between stands of willows, cottonwoods, sycamores and other scrubby vegetation. Back Channel Baleshead/Stack Island/Ben Lamond In high water yawning wide back channel opens up behind the top end of Baleshead LBD 491 or 492. Wander behind Baleshead and the “left bank” Stack Island and enjoy the pleasure of back channel paddling for many miles free of any towboats or buoys.

Once you get past the lower island around 487.5 start checking traffic for return to the main channel, or continue downstream behind the next set of islands. Back Channel of Stack Island Cut in behind “right bank” Stack Island (RBD 489) for a beautiful seven and a half mile meandering back channel experience. Best run at medium water or higher, above 20 on the Vicksburg Gauge. Primitive access into town two miles down RBD. Reenter main channel out of the Lake Providence Harbor at RBD 483. Lake Providence Primitive Landing You'll see a primitive landing with access into town two miles down RBD.

Hide your canoe or kayak and walk through woods, over levee and into town by way of City Dump Road (which brings you out on Lake Street US 65). If you need a quick resupply of water or food, this would be your closest landing to town.

Lake Providence Harbor Boat Launch Narrow concrete ramp cut through the muddy banks of the harbor. Good at all water levels. Don't leave vehicle here except for daytrip. The walk to town is three miles. Boat Launch to River You can put in at the Lake Providence Harbor Boat Launch and paddle one-and-a-half miles to reach the main channel of the Mississippi River. Back Channel Ajax When the river is high (above 33 Vicksburg Gauge) adventurous paddlers can dive into a series of chutes and back channels that dart in and out of a myriad of islands that have formed over the years in the Ajax Bar vicinity.

The route chosen here is just one of dozens of possibilities. Pick a line and follow it, but be watchful for snags, strainers and other hazards. Frequent log jams changes in sandbar topography. Ajax is mostly contained within the Shipland Wildlife Management Area. LBD 487-481 Shipland Wildlife Management Area Opposite Lake Providence and behind the Ajax archipelago canoeists and kayakers can enjoy the 3,500-acre Shipland Wildlife Management Area (WMA) which was established in 1982 on land purchased from the Nature Conservancy.

This is the only WMA in the Mississippi batture lands; that is, the land between the Mississippi River and the main-line river levee. The area is classified as bottomland hardwood but the habitat varies across the WMA from sand fields composed of grassland and stunted trees to a forest of oaks, pecan, and sugarberry, to low wet areas of willow trees and buttonbush. During low water levels there are also several hundred acres of sandbars in the Mississippi River that can be accessed on foot. In the last 10 years, several types of logging operations were conducted on the area to improve the habitat for wildlife.

WMA personnel also plant winter and summer food plots and maintain permanent openings to provide additional food for wildlife. Shipland WMA provides year-round public hunting and fishing opportunities. Deer hunting is the most popular form of hunting followed closely by squirrel and waterfowl hunting. Deer seasons are restricted to archery and primitive weapon, with harvest limited to antlerless deer and bucks with an inside spread of at least 12 inches, or one main beam length of at least 15 inches.

The black color phase of fox squirrels occurs on the area and is considered a trophy by hunters who come from areas where this phase is not found. Waterfowl hunting opportunities exist mainly in the Mississippi River, and the hunting can be good at times. Rabbit and turkey hunting is generally poor due to the yearly flooding by the Mississippi River depressing their numbers. There is a small ox-bow lake on the southern end of the area that provides good fishing opportunities. Although there is not a boat ramp on the area providing access into the river, there are places a small boat can be launched from the bank if the river is not too low.

Primitive camping is also allowed on the area. Shipland WMA is also a very good area for bird watching. The borrow areas next to the main line levee, and the sand dunes in the river provide excellent areas to see shore

birds and waterfowl. Shipland is far enough west that the spring and fall migration of Neotropical migrants may bring in birds not normally seen in most areas of Mississippi. (Adopted from Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks) 480-474 Fitler Bend Fitler takes its name from a plantation that used to be found around the bottom end of the bend. The main channel of the river flushes vigorously around and out of Ajax (where it has been squeezed) and then erupts in a quarter-mile wide tongue of boils and swirls into Fitler.

The tall banks and thick forests of Fitler shove this muted muddy violence southwestward and then almost due west for removal into the next series of islands found at Cottonwood Bar and Arcadia Point Bar. At high water, the speed of the river can be alarming. During the great flood of 2011 which broke high water levels in Vicksburg and Natchez, two other paddlers and I clocked the water speed at 12 miles per hour! This was a little alarming, to say the least. As water speeds up its turbulence increases exponentially.

We experienced very violent boils erupting in this area. So strongly did these boils arise out of the river depths that the large portions of the river’s face was pushed upwards one or two - or maybe even three feet - in a smooth dome 50, 60 maybe 100 feet wide, and then exploded open into a maelstrom of foaming boiling water that roared loudly and ominously. As we flew down the river at 12 mph the waters slid sideways with centrifugal force and slammed into the bankside forests... this with such force that the trees shook in excitement, their branches and leaves shaking like a wind was blowing, although there was none.

Tall wakes of whitewater arose around their trunks and curled outwards. It looked like half of the boiling muddy river was sheeting sideways into the forests at Acadia Point and running off through the woods. A funny vignette occurred here in Fitler Bend from our slightly crazy highwater expedition of May 2011. I was paddling with Hodding Carter IV (of Greenville fame - his grandfather had founded the great newspaper the Delta Democrat Times ) and photographer Christopher LaMarca. We were documenting the flooding river for an Outside Magazine story that would later be voted one of the best adventure stories of the year.

The river had been “shut down” to recreational use and only a few tows braved the flood. There was no one else except for us. We paddled into Fitler feeling like the whole river was ours and spotted some vacation homes that had been recently constructed near Point Lookout. (Point Lookout is over the levee and through the woods east of Transylvania, Louisiana). A small community had been carved into a wooded place that probably shouldn’t be inhabited... Obviously shouldn’t be inhabited as made evident now: water was flowing over the streets twenty feet deep and telephone poles were quivering like frightened bunnies.

Some of the spec houses had been overturned. We saw one house with muddy water flowing through its porch and decided to investigate. Normally this house would stand tall above the water. I’ve seen it since the flood. It’s perched on stilts with a tall staircase reaching up to the porch. The ground floor and the front porch stand at least twenty feet off the ground. A jacuzzi had been installed on one side of the porch. But now the river had risen over its sides,

and the jacuzzi was full of muddy water. A wide screen television was located on the porch wall behind. We couldn’t resist. We tied the canoe off and jumped into the muddy jacuzzi and enjoyed a few minutes of relaxation! Three days previous and almost three hundred miles upstream in Memphis we had paddled past the Mud Island Riverpark where the same muddy river water had gotten so high it had been flowing through the scale model of the Mississippi (which previous to then had been filled with clear Memphis tap water!) 471-465 Arcadia Point Bar/Cottonwood Bar The main channel runs southwestward several miles out of Fitler and then without turning one way or the other slides in between two big sandbar towheads Arcadia Point Bar and Cottonwood Bar so smoothly and perfectly you would think it had been drawn that way on a design pad. Well, it had been planned that way, and then carved that